I am speaking from personal experience as a convicted felon who has struggled with the limitations placed upon me by background checks. I have seen doors close in my face time and time again - for housing, college, jobs. Dreams I have of becoming a doctor or a lawyer are much harder to realize owing to the constraints of my past.

In the United States, there is an alarming injustice in the system. Notorious individuals, such as a convicted felon who was just allowed to run and be elected as the President, can ascend to the highest office in the land, yet those of us with nonviolent felonies have our basic rights curtailed and opportunities denied. According to a study by the National Institute of Justice, roughly 60% of formerly incarcerated individuals are unemployed one year after their release, emphasizing the need for change.

Background checks in applications for jobs, housing, and colleges should not determine an individual's potential success or value. They fail to consider growth, remorse, maturity, and rehabilitation, dooming us to be forever tethered to our worst mistakes. By removing this barrier, we can create a society more focused on present ability and future potential rather than past mistakes.

By eliminating background checks, we allow for fair chances, challenge discrimination, and embrace the potential that people can change. We let individuals prove themselves not by their past but by their present actions and future aspirations.

We urge all concerned organizations and legislative bodies to abolish background checks in all forms of applications. It is time to end this punitive system and start a new chapter toward reintegration and acceptance. Please lend your voice to this cause—sign this petition. Help us foster a more inclusive and reformative society.